Can I Afford One More Candy? How Motivational Contexts Shape Adaptive Cognitive Control in Children.
Recent findings suggest that preschoolers are capable of adapting cognitive control (CC) through bottom–up associative learning. However, it is not clear how motivational contextual triggers may influence this ability. This study investigated adaptive CC in a "hot" experimental context administering...
| Publicado en: | Developmental Psychology Vol. 62; no. 4; pp. 765 - 779 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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American Psychological Association
Apr2026
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=192413305&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 192413305 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00121649 DPS jtl: Developmental Psychology issn: 00121649 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Apr2026 vid: 62 iid: 4 pid: 34 pub: American Psychological Association artinfo: ui: 192413305 10.1037/dev0001976 ppf: 765 ppct: 14 formats: tig: atl: Can I Afford One More Candy? How Motivational Contexts Shape Adaptive Cognitive Control in Children. aug: au: Toffoli, Lisa Calderan, Margherita Del Popolo Cristaldi, Fiorella Duma, Gian Marco Calcagnì, Antonio Pastore, Massimiliano Tarantino, Vincenza Mento, Giovanni affil: Department of General Psychology, NeuroDev Lab, University of Padua Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialisation, University of Padua Scientific Institute, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico E. Medea, Conegliano, Treviso, Italy Department of Psychology, Educational Sciences and Human Movement, University of Palermo su: Italy Risk-taking behavior Task performance Executive function Psychological adaptation Learning Self-control Motivation (Psychology) Cognition Child behavior Research funding Questionnaires Descriptive statistics Candy Experimental design Conceptual structures Data analysis software sug: subj: Risk-taking behavior Task performance Executive function Psychological adaptation Learning Self-control Motivation (Psychology) Cognition Child behavior Italy Other specialty-line food merchant wholesalers Confectionery and Nut Stores Confectionery Merchant Wholesalers Research funding Questionnaires Descriptive statistics Candy Experimental design Conceptual structures Data analysis software keyword: adaptive cognitive control Balloon Analogue Risk Task Bayesian survival analysis hot executive functions item-specific effect adaptive cognitive control Balloon Analogue Risk Task Bayesian survival analysis hot executive functions item-specific effect ab: Recent findings suggest that preschoolers are capable of adapting cognitive control (CC) through bottom–up associative learning. However, it is not clear how motivational contextual triggers may influence this ability. This study investigated adaptive CC in a "hot" experimental context administering a modified version of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task to 170 children (83 F; 4–7 years). Specifically, a proportion manipulation induced different risky attitudes based on item-specific features (i.e., the balloon color). Overall, children were capable of inferring environmental regularities embedded in the context to optimize their performance. Regarding their ability to exploit and update these regularities for flexible CC adaptation, results suggest that reversal learning is ambiguous at the block level—overshadowed by a general increase in risk-taking—but tentatively present at the sub-block level, with asymmetric effects. Indeed, children seem to successfully adapt CC when going from a low to a high advantageous context but not vice versa. Moreover, different adaptive CC profiles were predictive of daily behavioral difficulties revealed by parental questionnaires. Public Significance Statement: This study suggests that even young children (4–7 years old) are able to use environmental regularities to adapt self-regulation. Importantly, this ability may differ as a function of contextual motivation and seem to predict daily behavioral difficulties as assessed using a parental questionnaire. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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